Controversy at the Military Academy

MG Paul E Vallely, US Army (Ret)

by LTC Robert M. Heffington
Guest Editorial
Editorial Staff and Melissa Leon

Robert Heffington’s letter comes after weeks of controversy at the Military Academy. Retired LTC Robert M. Heffington wrote the following letter as an open letter. Heffington was an assistant professor at West Point for several years until August 2017. This letter has been circulating in private among the military for a few days. Heffington confirmed to American Military News on October 4 that he did write the letter; he included a signed copy.

He wrote the letter considering recent media coverage of 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone, a West Point graduate and infantry officer who came under fire as a cadet for his public advocacy and support of communism and being an “official socialist organizer” of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA). The broader conversation that has been taking place in the military community now is what exactly went on – and goes on – at West Point that a graduate such as Rapone would feel so strongly empowered to be a communist and spread these doctrines.

Heffington says the Military Academy ignored Cadet Rapone’s behavior and his “very public hatred” of West Point. While this doesn’t mean leaders at West Point defend Rapone’s views, it means that West Point’s senior leaders “are infected with apathy: they simply do not want to deal with any problem, regardless of how grievous a violation of standards and discipline it may be,” Heffington writes.

Rapone was a communist propagandist and “official socialist organizer” of the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA). He posted a photo to Twitter of himself in support of professional football player Colin Kaepernick, where he is seen in his West Point uniform at graduation holding his cap, which contains a piece of paper that says, “Communism will win.”

Rapone’s social media was filled with hundreds of posts, messages, and photos that were being circulated around the military and civilian communities. His Twitter account is now protected, and his Instagram account has been removed. His Facebook, where he goes under Giuseppe Impastato, is private. Rapone had also posted a second photo of himself in uniform, and he is seen wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt underneath his uniform jacket. Guevara was a Cuban Marxist revolutionary who believed the people of Cuba would be saved by communism.

Rapone is now a 2LT (Second Lieutenant) and an infantry officer in the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. He has deployed to Afghanistan and received a combat infantryman badge (CIB). Rapone has been widely criticized on the internet – and so has West Point, for seemingly allowing this behavior and appearing to ignore an apparent communist who espouses many things the U.S. Military and the United States fight against. West Point has said that Rapone’s actions “in no way reflect the values of the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Army.” [But the Army allowed him to continue as a Cadet at West Point.]

In Heffington’s letter, he says the most recent coverage of Rapone only highlights a “disturbing trend” that he has observed over several years while being on the faculty at West Point, which are “fundamental changes that have eroded it to the point where I question whether the institution should even remain open.”

The following is Heffington’s letter in its entirety:

Dear Sir/Ma’am:

Before you read any further, please understand that the following paragraphs come from a place of intense devotion and loyalty to West Point. My experience as a cadet profoundly impacted who I am and the course of my life, and I remain forever grateful that I can be a part of the Long Gray Line. I firmly believe West Point is a national treasure. It can and should remain a vital source of well-trained, disciplined, highly educated Army officers and civilian leaders.

However, during my time on the West Point faculty (2006-2009 and again from 2013-2017), I witnessed a series of fundamental changes at West Point that have eroded the institution to the point where I question whether the institution should even remain open. The recent coverage of graduate 2LT Spenser Rapone – an avowed Communist and sworn enemy of the United States – dramatically highlighted this disturbing trend. Given my recent tenure on the West Point faculty and my direct interactions with Rapone, his “mentors,” and the Academy’s leadership, I believe I can shed light on how someone like Rapone could graduate.

First and foremost, honorable standards at West Point are nonexistent. They exist on paper but nowhere else. The senior administration at West Point inexplicably refuses to enforce West Point’s publicly touted high standards on cadets. Having picked up on this, cadets refuse to enforce standards on each other. The Superintendent refuses to enforce admissions standards or the Cadet Honor Code, the Dean refuses to enforce academic standards, and the Commandant refuses to enforce standards of conduct and discipline. The result is a sort of malaise that pervades the entire institution. Nothing matters anymore. Cadets know this, which has given rise to cadet arrogance and entitlement, the likes of which West Point has never seen in its history.

Every fall, the Superintendent addresses the staff and faculty and lies to them. He repeatedly states, “We are going to have winning sports teams without compromising our standards.” Everyone in Robinson Auditorium knows he is lying because we routinely admit athletes with ACT scores in the mid-teens. I have personally taught cadets who are borderline illiterate and cannot read simple passages from the assigned textbooks. It is disheartening when the institution’s most senior leader openly lies to his faculty – and they all know he is lying.

The Cadet Honor Code has become a laughingstock. Cadets know they will not be separated for violating it; thus, they do so daily. Moreover, since they refuse to enforce standards on each other and police their ranks, cadets will rarely find a cadet at an honor hearing despite overwhelming evidence that a violation has occurred. This, in turn, has caused the staff and faculty to give up even reporting honor incidents. Why would a staff or faculty member expend the massive amount of time and energy it takes to report an honor violation – including writing multiple sworn statements, giving interviews, and testifying at the honor hearing; when they know without a doubt the cadet will not be found (or, if found, the Superintendent will not separate the cadet)? To make matters worse, the senior leadership at West Point actively discourages staff and faculty from reporting honor violations.

l was unfortunate enough to experience this firsthand during my first tour on the faculty when the Commandant of Cadets called my office phone and proceeded to berate me in the most vulgar and obscene language for over ten minutes because I had reported a [female] cadet who lied to me and then asked if “we could just drop it.” Of course, I was duty-bound to report the cadet’s violation, and I did. During the berating I received from the Commandant, I never found out why he was so angry. He was irritated that the institution had to deal with this case and that it was my fault it even existed.

At the honor hearing the next day, I ended up being the one on trial, as the cadet and her civilian attorney dragged my character and reputation through the mud while I sat on the witness stand without any assistance. Of course, the cadet was not found (despite having at first admitted that she lied); she eventually graduated.

Just recently a cadet openly plagiarized his history research paper; his civilian professor reported it. The evidence was overwhelming – there was no doubt about his guilt, yet the cadet was not found. The professor and all the faculty who knew of the case were utterly demoralized.

This is the new norm for the cadet honor system. In fact, the honor system now has an addition (the Willful Admission Process) that guarantees that if a cadet admits a violation, separation is not even a possibility. Separation is not possible anyway because the Superintendent refuses to impose that sanction.

Academic standards also need to be improved. This trend started approximately ten years ago and has continued to worsen. West Point has stated academic expectations and performance standards, but they must be addressed. Cadets routinely fail multiple classes but are separated at the end-of-semester Academic Boards. Their professors recommend “Definitely Separate,” but those recommendations are disregarded.

I recently taught a cadet who failed four classes in one semester (including mine). In addition to several failed courses in previous semesters, she was retained at the Academy. As a result, professors have lost hope and faith in the entire Academic Board process. It has been made clear that cadets can fail many classes, yet they will not be separated. Instead, when they fail (and they do to a staggering extent), the Dean simply throws them back into the mix and expects the faculty to drag them through the academic program until they earn a passing grade. What a betrayal this is to the faculty!

Also, since they get full grade replacement if they must re­take a course, cadets are incentivized to fail. They know they can retake the course over the summer when they have no other competing requirements, and their new grade completely replaces the failing one. ST AP (Summer Term Academic Program) is also now an accepted summer detail assignment, so retaking a course during the summer translates into even more summer leave for the deficient cadet.

Even the curriculum itself has suffered. The Plebe American History course has been revamped to focus completely on race and the narrative that America is founded solely on a history of racial oppression. Cadets derisively call it the “I Hate America Course.” Simultaneously, the Plebe International History course now focuses on gender to the exclusion of many other important themes. On the other hand, an entire semester of military history was recently deleted from the curriculum at West Point!

The bar has been lowered to the point where it is irrelevant in all courses. If a cadet fails a course, the instructor is blamed, so instructors are incentivized to pass everyone. Additionally, the bar for passing the course is lowered instead of responding to cadet failure with an insistence that cadets rise to the challenge and meet the standard. This pattern is widespread and pervades every academic department.

Conduct and disciplinary standards are perhaps the worst of all. Cadets are jaded, cynical, arrogant, and entitled. They routinely talk back to and snap at their instructors, military and civilian alike, challenge authority, and openly refuse to follow regulations. They are allowed to wear civilian clothes in almost any arena outside the classroom, and they flaunt that privilege. Some arrive to class unshaven, needing haircuts, and with uniforms that look so ridiculously bad that, at times, I could not believe I was even looking at a West Point cadet.

However, if a staff or faculty member attempts to correct the cadet in question, that staff/faculty member will be reprimanded for “harassing cadets.” For example, as I made my rounds through the barracks inspecting study conditions one evening as the Academic Officer in Charge, I encountered a cadet in a company study room. He wore blue jeans and nothing else and was covered in tattoos. He had long hair and was unshaven, and I was honestly unsure if he was even a cadet. He looked more like a prison convict to me. When I questioned what he was doing there, he remained seated in his chair and sneered at me, saying that he “was authorized” because he was a First Class cadet. I corrected him and then reported him to the chain of command the next morning. Later that day I received an email from the Brigade Tactical Officer telling me to “stay in my lane.” I know many other officers receive the same treatment when attempting to make corrections. It is incredibly discouraging when the response is invariably one that comes to the defense of the cadet.

That brings me to another point: cadets’ versions of stories are always valued more highly by senior leaders than those of commissioned officers on the staff and faculty. It is as if West Point’s senior leaders believe their job is to “protect” cadets from the staff and faculty at all costs. This might explain why the faculty’s recommendations are ignored at the Academic Boards, why honor violations are ignored and commissioned officers are verbally abused for bringing them to light, and why cadets always “win” regarding conduct and disciplinary issues.

It seems that the Academy’s senior leaders are intimidated by cadets. During my first tour on the faculty (I was a Captain then), I noticed that 4th class cadets were going on leave in civilian clothes when the regulation clearly stated they were supposed to be wearing a uniform. During a discussion about cadet standards between the BTO and the Dept. of History faculty, I asked why plebes were going on leave in civilian clothes. His answer astonished me: “That rule is too hard to enforce.”

Yet West Point had no problem enforcing that rule on me in the mid-1990s. I found it impossible to believe that the several hundred field-grade officers stationed at West Point could not make teenagers wear the uniform. This anecdote highlights that West Point’s senior leaders lack the ability and motivation to enforce their will upon the Corps of Cadets.

This brings me to the case of now – 2LT Spenser Rapone. It is not at all surprising that the Academy ignored his behavior and his very public hatred of West Point, the Army, and this nation. I knew at the time I wrote that sworn statement in 2015 that he would go on to graduate. It is not so much that West Point’s leadership defends his views (Prof. Hosein did, however); it is that West Point’s senior leaders are infected with apathy: they do not want to deal with any problem, regardless of how grievous a violation of standards and discipline it may be. They are so reticent to separate problematic cadets (undoubtedly due to the “developmental model” that now exists at USMA) that someone like Rapone can easily slip through the cracks. In other words, West Point’s leaders choose the easier wrong over the harder right.

I could go on, but I fear this letter would devolve into a screed, which is not my intention. I will sum up by saying this: a culture of extreme permissiveness has invaded the Military Academy, and there seems to be no end. Moreover, this is not unintentional; it is a deliberate action being taken by the Academy’s senior leadership, though they refuse to acknowledge or explain it. Conduct and behavior that would never be tolerated at a civilian university is common among cadets, and it is supported and defended by the Academy’s senior leaders in an apparent and misguided effort to attract more applicants and cater to what they see as the unique needs of this generation of cadets.

Our beloved Military Academy has lost its way. It is a shadow of what it once was. It used to be where standards and discipline mattered and concepts like Duty, Honor, and Country were real and meant something. Those ideas have been replaced by extreme permissiveness, rampant dishonesty, and an inexplicable pursuit of mediocrity. Instead of scrambling to restore West Point to what it once was, the Academy’s senior leaders give cadets more privileges in a seeming effort to turn the institution into a third-rate civilian liberal arts college. Unfortunately, they have largely succeeded. The few remaining staff members and faculty still trying to hold the line are routinely berated, ignored, and ultimately silenced for their unwillingness to “go along with the program.” The Academy’s senior leaders do not want to hear their voices or concerns. Dissent is crushed was repeatedly told to keep quiet at faculty meetings, even as an LTC, because my dissent was neither needed nor appreciated.

It breaks my heart to write this. It breaks my heart to know first-hand what West Point versus what it has become. This is not a “Corps has” story; it is meant to highlight a deliberate and radical series of changes being undertaken at the highest levels of USMA ‘s leadership that are detrimental to the institution. Criticizing these changes is not popular. Some at the Academy have labeled me a “traitor” due to my sworn statement’s appearance in the media circus surrounding Spenser Rapone. However, whenever I hear this, I am reminded of the Cadet Prayer:

” … suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish. Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won. …that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy.”

West Point was once special, and it can be again. Spenser Rapone never should have been admitted, much less graduated, but he was- and that mistake is directly attributable to the culture of permissiveness and apathy that now exists there.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Robert M. Heffington

LTC, U.S. Army (Ret), West Point Class of 1997

[Does this sound like USNA? Mid’n murdered, drunk, raped – permissiveness. ADM Rickover (USNA22) said it best in August 1963: If USNA isn’t going to produce superior engineering graduates, the place should be closed.”]

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